Divide and Deport. Roma and Sinti in Austria

01 September 1996

Divide and Deport. Roma and Sinti in Austria

The purpose of the report is to show the consequences on Roma of a series of new laws on legal residence and asylum, ratified between 1991 and 1993. The report also investigates how the ground was prepared for the systematic exclusion of Roma in Austria through the recognition of a narrow and unrepresentative group of Roma as an Austrian "ethnic group" (Volksgruppe). A connection is made between this systematic exclusion and the appearance in Austria of episodes of public violence specifically targeting Roma. Finally, the report makes a series of concrete recommendations to the Austrian government for improving the legal situation of Roma in Austria.

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